Bridges to Burn
by deadlybeautiful
Summary: Life is about knowing which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn. It’s all about knowing if you choose to cross a bridge if it’s going to collapse underfoot and send you tumbling down river. A Leah story.


**It's non-canon near the end, but I couldn't resist. I should be updating _You're the one I love to hate_... but... I have so many ideas I have no idea where to start. It happens sometimes. **

**I don't own Twilight.**

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Life is about knowing which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn. It's all about knowing if you choose to cross a bridge if it's going to collapse underfoot and send you tumbling down river. Too bad she didn't realize this earlier, or she could have saved herself a lot of trouble.

Leah can't even remember all the times that she's pulled herself out of the river. She can't remember all the times that she dragged herself back to the shore crying and wounded by the sharp rocks at the bottom. There were too many to count and they were all too much to think about.

I mean, honestly, how many times did she have to fall for guys, only to have them imprint?

Sam had been a logical choice. He had been sturdy bridge, at first. His smiles had been strong and she had been too head over heals to bother thinking everything through. She hadn't expected the bridge to collapse beneath her sending her into the rushing water, nearly drowning her.

_The walk across had been good_, she thought, _but the water is as cold as a bitch_.

The water had made her as cold as it was, after time. She was the bitch now. Literally.

She picked the wrong bridge again, or, more accurately, her genes had picked the wrong bridge.

It wasn't that she hadn't thought about having kids. That was the problem, she had. Knowing now -or not knowing, she chose to have the small glimmer of hope, something the doctor could steal away from her- well that was just a swift kick in the ass. A bridge that she was forced to endure.

That bridge just kept getting worse. Adolescent teenage boys being able to see her bitterness from the one place she thought she was safe; no thank you. However, she doesn't get a choice. She gets werewolves in her mind, hearing her every thought.

The worst part though, is that he can hear, and that she can hear him. Sam. Fuck, will life ever give her a fair share? No, it won't.

He's happy, he has her. And Leah, Leah has no one.

So, when the opportunity arises to leave Sam behind she takes it. She crosses the bridge because this was her shot; this was her back door out of hell. This was her salvation.

She joined Jacob's pack.

It was the most logical decision, really. It was as simple as two plus two.

Because, that's what Leah's life was like. It was supernatural intervention and logical decisions. Then, the most illogical thing in the world happened. She fell in love.

She had been at the leeches crypt watching Jake watch Nessie. It had hit her as he leaned down and smiled at the _thing_.

She was jealous. The only time Leah had been jealous was every time Emily was around Sam. And that was because she still loved Sam. So why was she so jealous of _Nessie_?

Because she was in love.

All the air left the room and she couldn't breathe.

Not again, was the only intelligible thought she had before she had run out of the house. Thankfully, she had thought to grab her nose so she had an excuse for later. Though, at the time it had been more about stopping the tears than the stench of vampires.

She didn't phase because that would have been a big mistake and Leah thought that she had made enough of them.

Her entire life was just one big mistake. One messed up catastrophe.

Why did she fall in love? Why did imprinting always come back to bite her in the ass?

She didn't know, but maybe if she did she wouldn't have tears streaming down her face.

She was crying. She hadn't cried in months.

She didn't know why it hurt so much. She didn't know why life kept giving her the short end of the stick.

And, at this point, she wasn't quite sure she wanted to know. Leah thought, maybe she could go the rest of her life without knowing.

Her father had always told her -when she was little and the very sight of him made her smile- that life was just a series of bridges, one after another. He had told her -her eyes wide and her attention unyielding- that the answer to life was all about learning which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.

Leah hadn't really got it, until now, sprinting through the woods and doomed to have history repeat itself.

She just had to burn the bridge, even if she was already crossing it.


End file.
